Tuesday, 21 July 2015

Ambush at Ithilien

Well, after several weeks of practices and assignments from college I'm finally back, and what better than a game of lord of the rings in 1/72 to celebrate the beginning of the (real) holidays!

This skirmish represents the ambush by Faramir of a contingent of southrons told in the book, the darkness has a bunch of haradrim and of course a Mûmak (with a Mahûd commander and Kârna guards), the light side has Frodo, Sam, Faramir, Damrod and several rangers and archers.

The southrons move quickly towards one side of the road; remaining in the middle would be higly unadvisable.

First blood goes to the gondorians, who fell two haradrim

The archers of the mumak's castle soon have their revenge however

Frodo, upon seeing the fate of the men around him wisely choses to retreat

Sam and Faramir come out of the forests to help the rest

Then, the heir of Denethor is trampled in the dirt by Mûmak legs. Never leave cover when there are elephants loose in this game (thay can't enter it), if they catch you in the open there won't leave much behind,

Not all goes badly for the light, since Frodo manages to kill one of the haradrim coming after him with a stone (wait, are you telling me that stones kill men and arrows don't?)

The archers in the hill become embroiled in hand to hand

Frodo keeps his run, followed closely by evil men

Another one dropped by a cobble! seriously, he has clearly learned some of his uncle's skills in stone throwing

Sam is wounded by the roaming Mûmak

An archer falls before three foes

The light player decides to stop hiding and charges the southern beast

Wounding it (the Mahûd manged to control it however, if not the light player would have moved it in the next phase!)

Frodo fends off his pursuer

The men (and hobbit) of the other side hid again in the bushes and keep their ineffectual shooting

The kârna guards eventually killed Sam with massed volleys

Frodo loses the combat, but his mithril coat protects him from all harm

Wich cannot be said of the gondorian archers!

The rangers are better at combat, and a lone haradrim archer learns it the hard way

The Mûmak moves away from the rest of the rangers to protect the Mahûd commander perched on its neck

The last archer runs from the haradrim

As does Frodo

A ranger is killed by poisoned arrows

With 50% losses reached some gondorians begin to flee

An archer is stomped in the open

Now Frodo is surrounded by enemies, but his heroic actions'll ensure that the enemy won't be able to catch him

Yet another one killed by the Kârna guards

Who also inflict one wound on the ring bearer

The battle ends with Frodo running through the forests with the southrons hard on his heels, but since hobbits wnow their way around the green have no fear that he'll lose them soon.

Yet another darkness victory!

This skirmish was the epilogue to the Two Towers scenarios, next we'll do the battles of the supplement shadow and flame at the request of my father, who wished to play in the underdepths below the world. Those scenarios'll be preceded by a fitting prologue, the battle of Azanulbizar no less!

Now I'll only have to paint 30 dwarfs, and build the Mirorrmere and the west gate of Moria for the next week, oh dear...